He also revealed that the firm plans to open a new design centre in London.

Huawei has picked the UK as the launch point for its international roll-out of smartphones and tablet computers.

The Shenzhen-based firm says it plans to expand into the US, Japan and India next year, and then other parts of the world in 2013.

"Over the next three years we are aiming to be in the top five smartphone makers, and in the top three in the next five years," said Mr Xu.

"We have established very aggressive targets in the market."Design hub

To help distinguish itself Huawei is opening three design centres outside of its homeland.

The first, in London, will concentrate on the European smartphone market.

It is being run by Mark Mitchinson, a mobile industry veteran who previously worked for Nokia, Samsung and Carphone Warehouse.

"We are bringing products - more vanilla at the moment - to market, and they are going to be very affordable," he told the BBC.

"Going forward we will be developing products that are much more advanced in their look and feel," he explained. "But that will come as we develop what we are doing in terms of our London design centre."

Huawei's initial line-up includes its Blaze and Vision smartphones and a 7-inch tablet, the MediaPad.

Although the devices do not have the most advanced specifications, they are competitively priced to help deliver Huawei's target 18-34 year old market.

"Our profit margins aren't probably where we would like them to be maybe in a few years down the line," Mr Mitchinson said.

"[But] we will be making a profit on these devices. They are not loss leaders. I think the profit will probably increase as we go through in terms of how we evolve as a brand."Huawei's Vision smartphone Huawei wants its London centre to deliver "groundbreaking" designsPatents

Huawei's mobile device roll-out could lead it into a clash with Microsoft.

The US company claims that the Android system, which is used by Huawei's devices, exploits some of its innovations.

However, Huawei's marketing chief hinted that his firm is able to defend itself.